Back in the spring, you buried your seeds in the soil. With the spring rain falling and the sunshine warming the earth, small seedlings began to poke their heads out of the ground. You intend to care for these small plants so they will flourish. But what would happen if you planted the seeds and [...]
I'm willing to bet at least some of my readers love gardening, especially this time of year when the emergence of warm sunshine, sweet-smelling blossoms, and busy bees fill hopes for our gardens! Or, if you don’t garden, perhaps you have someone to help you with the yardwork and maintenance. But what happens when you [...]
4. What do you want out of the relationship? In our previous posts we shared client and vendor insights about scoping out a project, defining success, and choosing a vendor. Today, we examine what we each want out of the relationship – being aligned on this is an important factor in a fruitful project and [...]
3. How do you identify and select the best vendor for your project? In our last two posts we shared client and vendor insights about scoping out a project. In this month’s installment, we offer suggestions for selecting the best vendor for a project. Veronica Clements, Client perspective I begin my search for a vendor [...]
2. Define success: How do you define what success will look like? In our last post we discussed problem definition. As part of that we delve into defining success. Veronica Clements, Client perspective As the client, an important part of preparing a request for proposal or discussing my needs with a prospective vendor is to [...]
What happens when you are asked to take on more work than you can handle– either due to capacity or capability? Let’s say your manager just laid a huge project on you – to develop a new training curriculum for a group that has been having some challenges. Because you don’t have the resources you’ll [...]
After a wonderful few days spent with family and friends, I feel reenergized and ready to meet 2019 head on! How about you? For many of us, the new year brings challenges, like reprioritizing our time so we’re focused on the right things or learning the next great tool or process or figuring out how [...]
Imagine that you work as a manager, heading up a department of six people, and tomorrow Alex, one of your reports, plans to attend training all day. He let you know that he’d be attending this class on project management, and that he needs someone to cover for him while he’s away. Knee-deep in work [...]
Have you been in a situation where you’ve engaged a Subject Matter Expert (SME) from your organization to develop a training program? It can make a lot of sense to do that – she will have the content knowledge and experience to pass along to others, and she will be thrilled to share it—it’s her [...]
Five Ways to Improve Your Networking Summer is an important season to focus on building your network. People feel relaxed and want to get out and mingle, so it’s easy to make new contacts. This does not, however, mean that networking itself is easy. While I enjoy networking, it’s definitely a skill — like any [...]
Last week, I went to the doctor for my routine exam – something I do every year. While I don’t find the experience unpleasant, it can be kind of a pain. I need to take time from my busy schedule to attend the appointment and any follow-up care that results. Sometimes I wonder, why do [...]
I have a 10-year-old car. It’s a great car – a silver Honda CRV with over 125,000 miles that’s whisked our family on many vacations, transported the kids to and from school, and conveyed me to many a work meeting. I take good care of my car, having it serviced (at the dealer!) whenever it [...]
As instructional designers, we often confront ambiguity when we take on a new project, especially when working with a stakeholder who has already created, the process, tool, or content. It can be overwhelming to achieve clarity – to get our arms around the purpose of the proposed change, impact on performers and the organization, which [...]
Would an experienced runner set off from a marathon starting line without warming up? No! A world class athlete takes time to prepare for a race, and often goes through the paces of a regime created by her running coach. She may run a short distance, then hold 30-second stretches. Her coach knows these energizing [...]
Bea Smart, an instructional designer, started working recently with Joe King, a compliance director, about potential training needs. She’s excited about the opportunity to partner with the Compliance Department and wants to impress her new internal client. Bea starts off with a training needs analysis by completing several employee interviews, an activity that had never [...]
Looking for a fun night out? You could head off to your favorite neighborhood dive – or, er, brew pub – and grab a burger and a couple of beers. You’d see the same regulars and the familiar, weathered interior of the pub. And you’d enjoy the comforting routine...though in the back of your mind, [...]
Are you – or is someone you work closely with – a SME (subject matter expert)? Instructional designers often require a SME’s knowledge and input to develop training. And it can be a challenge to obtain the key content (and only the key content). First, let’s introduce a typical SME, Simone. Simone is the director [...]
In our last blog post we saw how immersive, sensory events can help us remember experiences, using the example of my trip to the Blue Lagoon spa. We don’t need to visit a spa to help learners remember, though...we can create immersive experiences to enhance our instructional design. Here are two examples of physically immersive [...]
This summer, my husband and I traveled to Iceland. Among other wonders of nature, we visited the Blue Lagoon, a spa formed 40 years ago during the creation of a geothermal power plant. Today, people come from all over to bathe in the warm, soothing water. There are a surprising number of things to do [...]
We’re all enjoying the Rio Olympics right now, and witnessing incredible athletic feats. Some sports achievements are very easy to measure. Take track and field, for example. In a race, the runner who crosses the finish line first wins. In soccer or water polo, the team that scores the most points wins the game. In [...]
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